Australian and New Zealand Gardening: BROMELIADS FOR NOVICES & ADDICTS MAY & June 2012, 1 by perke_patch

perke_patch wrote:AhhTash purple star is a nice choice of new brom. We have about 4 beauties at the moment but we want to keep them for pups for later. I could have sold them all last weekend as theyare stunners at the moment. We had about 6 others but they were snaffled up over the last 4 or 5 weeks since the couple in the totem at the start of the back shadecover area started looking good. the colour is certainly eye catching hence everyone hones in on them as soon as they get into the backyard.

Sorry I haven't been posting or even checking for a few nights. This head cold has really clung on and the eyes just aren't coping with looking at the computer. I tend to sit with it on and just glance sideways every now and then to see what's new popping up. I just lean back, chilling and watching TV till I just can't stay awake any longer. The last couple of days since our busy weekend I've even been getting pain in the back when breathing so it is upstairs in the warm by 4pm. I've even been getting the bath out of they way before tea as the hot water seems to ease the back pain. then it's dressing warmly for the night. We decided today we were getting an electric blanket just to warm the bed before we get in. I can't remember when we went from warm nights to bloody cold ones just in 24 hours. Today I didn't even take my jumper off all day. Now Jen has the head cold too. I shouldn't have gone to Olive's with her and possibly shared the germs around. She says she probably caught it from Rowan who has had it too but I'm not sure. So far Johnny hasn't got it off me but Max (the dog) has been sneezing and spraying the floor so I think I shared with him. Possibly from sharing my tea cause I certainly don't kiss him LOL

I love all these pics we've seen recently. Karen glad you are feeling better again. I read somewhere that if you have an arythmia you can correct it by doing something like hiccuping or sneezing, or coughing or something. I can't remember exactly what it was. I think it was sneezing as the pressure reboots the heart or something. maybe it was coughing cause you can force yourself to cough on deman but a true sneeze is a bit harder to do. Yes probably coughing. Anyway maybe you can try it next time and see if it works. I think it gave you the time to survive till the ambos can get there and get you to hospital. Anyway hope it works if you ever need it.

Did you get to see the tillandsias when you were here Karen? There are so many coming into flower and a lot more with seeds ripening. I should have some nice tills growing soon going by the seeds coming on. I still can't remember what it was I was going to show you if you came to our sale. This CRAFT is really a nuisance and I am really starting to rely on my notebook to help me remember. I just wish I had written down what I wanted to show you. It will come to me one of these days.

Geoff lovely to see a new member joining our chats. You say something about broms being a mossie breeding ground. This is a mistake a lot of people make. Apparently broms put out an enzyme that prevents mossie lavae from maturing. I know we've seen lavae swimming in the vriseas for several days then suddenly they sink to the bottom dead and become fertiliser for the plant. We also have lots and lots of little frogs so I guess they enjoy the snack of them too.

Gee I think bed is calling again soon. The energy just doesn't want me to stay up late at the moment. I don't want to get hooked on anything that doesn't finish till late so I am staying in the lounge with Johnny flicking channels which annoys me. At the moment he is watching something about fishing so that's not going to keep me engrossed for long. Wish we had got to the shops to buy our electric blanket today but no we ran out of time. Ah well tomorrow. Nev we've decided we'll leave our trip south till it starts to warm up a bit .... maybe around September. Too cold now. We can't even sit on the front verandah now with the westerly wind. Better downstairs in the sun. The vrisea seedlings are living in the kitchen now too at night then go outside in the sun first thing in the morning.

Off to bed now. Night all

Wendy

The pic is one from Margaret Patterson's in Gympie. It is a garden arch full of tillandsias. She has some nice till hybrids but I agree that she tends to name all her seedlings instead of just picking out the best. Some aren't worth it. what I liked was down by the river, seeing every tree loaded with clumps of tillandsia of all different types. Karen would have been like me .... drooling all over the place. And itching to collect some of the seed flying everywhere ..... hence the till all over the place.
Night all